What Is Your Best Directed Movie ?

[palmer]

Anything that is dialouge heavy.... namely kevin smith, tarantino, is easy as fuck to direct. .


However I will tell you the most well directed movie ever made is:


APOCALYPSE NOW > Francis Ford Coppola


Its a fact. Can't believe it wasn't mentioned.

If you know anything about the struggle, pain, conditions etc... that went into that... just WOW. Coppola almost didn't make it out alive. If you can hunt down "Heart of Darkness" its only on vhs I think.... well worth checking out though. You will see what really went into it.

[el presidente Highsteppa]

Anything that is dialouge heavy.... namely kevin smith, tarantino, is easy as fuck to direct. .

How do you figure? When it comes to dialogue heavy films, they're usually the hardest parts to direct as the director has to keep control over how the actors deliver their lines, what they do while delivering the lines and keeping it in tone with the rest of the movie. Dialogue heavy films do not have the comfort of the distraction of other things (ie. explosions, gunfire, martial art sequences, sex) happening to allow audiences to notice a stilted performance. Add into that figuring out the camera angles, editing the scene and keeping things interesting while two people simply talk - and you have a challenge in itself.

They may not be physical, but they can be an ordeal to direct in themselves, especially something where emotional responses that are believable are involved.

Hell most of Kubrick's films are pretty dialogue heavy, and they're huge ordeals by themselves.

[bigT]

Re: What Is Your Best Directed Movie ?

Alex Proya is my favorite director hands down, Dark City and The Crow. David Fincher is up there as well.

[Jenks]

Anything that is dialouge heavy.... namely kevin smith, tarantino, is easy as fuck to direct. .


However I will tell you the most well directed movie ever made is:


APOCALYPSE NOW > Francis Ford Coppola


Its a fact. Can't believe it wasn't mentioned.

If you know anything about the struggle, pain, conditions etc... that went into that... just WOW. Coppola almost didn't make it out alive. If you can hunt down "Heart of Darkness" its only on vhs I think.... well worth checking out though. You will see what really went into it.

read, Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad.

[james]

Re: What Is Your Best Directed Movie ?

Stars Wars dirested by George Lucas.
Vanilla sky, I don?t remenber who was the director.

[maddlingo]

Re: What Is Your Best Directed Movie ?

A more recent movie that was I thought was brilliantly directed was Garden State by Zach Braff. Great movie IMO.

I also agree with Palmer and Apocalypse now. I don't think anyone mentioned Coppola's the Godfather I and II.

[BSully828]

Re: What Is Your Best Directed Movie ?

Alex Proya is my favorite director hands down, Dark City and The Crow.

Agree 100% there - Dark City is a terribly underrated film IMO.

Clockwork Orange is an amazing piece of work, I'd say. Actually, most of the stuff Kubrick made in his prime (like Strangelove, 2001, FMJ) are masterpieces, but Clockwork Orange is the best of the bunch.

Also, and I sense quite a flaming coming on from this, but I'd put the Matrix Trilogy up there as well. The Neo/Smith fight at the end of Revolutions, as an example, is incredible to watch as a visual representation of many of the themes found throughout the films. For the W. Bros. to use a huge action sequence like that to link up much of the symbolism in their story is pretty damn impressive.

[toasty]

When it comes to dialogue heavy films, they're usually the hardest parts to direct as the director has to keep control over how the actors deliver their lines, what they do while delivering the lines and keeping it in tone with the rest of the movie. Dialogue heavy films do not have the comfort of the distraction of other things (ie. explosions, gunfire, martial art sequences, sex) happening to allow audiences to notice a stilted performance. Add into that figuring out the camera angles, editing the scene and keeping things interesting while two people simply talk - and you have a challenge in itself.

agreed 100%. keeping a movie that is not motion-driven visually interesting is a real challenge. films like pulp fiction and kill bill are both dialogue heavy, but the shots are awesome. You could pause kill bill at just about any point and it would be worthy of hanging on your wall. You really can't say that about most action films.

Not to take anything away from the guy because I do like his stuff, but John Woo throws a bunch of doves at the screen and people think he's a genius. I like something that involves a little more forethought.

[daveman]

Re: What Is Your Best Directed Movie ?

CASINO: 1995, Martin Scorsese

Casino was the first movie to shoot within an actual casino in Las Vegas. Not only that but they were able to convincingly make it look accurate within the timeline the movie is set. The story is based on actual events and the monologues spoken throughout the film were quotes from the people who agreed to be interviewed for the making of the book and movie.

(Getting back to the subject of directing) Scorsese sets a fast pace to what some consider a long movie with his fast motion cut editing. His camera?s vision of Vegas brought out the bright lights and high times of an era lost in today?s Vegas. His story telling of mob life leaves you with many lessons to be learned about the mistakes that people make regardless of how perfect everything is set up.

[el presidente Highsteppa]

Not to take anything away from the guy because I do like his stuff, but John Woo throws a bunch of doves at the screen and people think he's a genius. I like something that involves a little more forethought.

There's a bit more to it than that. Watch The Killer and look at the incredibly intense Christian imagery that is going on through out the film. Tons of symbolism of everyone being a sinner (Danny Lee, Chow Yun Fat) - they're simiarly motivated characters that would be probably best described as sinners both seeking redemption and trying to do the right thing in a world that won't allow them to do so. The Killer is more of an art house action film, just for the incredibly sophisticated Christian themes and imagery that keeps occuring over and over again. It's a theme that continuously recurrs in all his films, from A Better Tomorrow, to A Bullet In The Head to Face/Off and onto Mission:Impossible 2 and even Windtalkers. I know I'm probably alone on this, but Hard Target was a fucking spectacular North American debut for him, even if the story lacked the themes of loyalty, duality, friendship and betrayal that Woo's best films offer. I think part of this is the feat of making Jean Claude Van Damme look absolutely great during the action sequences by focusing on Van Damme's grace with ballet (he was a dancer far before he became known as a "martial artist" - and with him I use the term very loosely), and the fact that he delivered a straightforward action film with a classic theme to it (borrowing largely from The Most Dangerous Game).

He's one of the most spiritual action film makers ever to have graced the screen that so many other filmmakers try to emulate but can't capture the soul and themes that he manages to compress into a single frame.

[el presidente Highsteppa]

Re: What Is Your Best Directed Movie ?

Also, and I sense quite a flaming coming on from this, but I'd put the Matrix Trilogy up there as well. The Neo/Smith fight at the end of Revolutions, as an example, is incredible to watch as a visual representation of many of the themes found throughout the films. For the W. Bros. to use a huge action sequence like that to link up much of the symbolism in their story is pretty damn impressive.

I don't think you're wrong at all, but I felt that the energy that the third film was trying to sustain from the first two, was gone, and the characters who were the most interesting ideas to offer (ie. Morpheus, Merovingian and The Architecht) didn't get enough screen time and faded into the background. I really dug the first two though, especially the puzzling hints and thoughts that Reloaded had to offer (which didn't really pay off that well by the third film imo - I felt a bit let down by the simplification and the tossing out of most of the philosophical musings that Reloaded had to offer).

[Sanchopi]

My favs are:

Fight Club by David Fincher
Donnie Darko by Richard Kelly
HEAT (1995) by Michael Mann
Gladiator by Ridley Scott

[evangelion]

Re: What Is Your Best Directed Movie ?

Anything that is dialouge heavy.... namely kevin smith, tarantino, is easy as fuck to direct. .

How do you figure? When it comes to dialogue heavy films, they're usually the hardest parts to direct as the director has to keep control over how the actors deliver their lines, what they do while delivering the lines and keeping it in tone with the rest of the movie. Dialogue heavy films do not have the comfort of the distraction of other things (ie. explosions, gunfire, martial art sequences, sex) happening to allow audiences to notice a stilted performance. Add into that figuring out the camera angles, editing the scene and keeping things interesting while two people simply talk - and you have a challenge in itself.

They may not be physical, but they can be an ordeal to direct in themselves, especially something where emotional responses that are believable are involved.

Hell most of Kubrick's films are pretty dialogue heavy, and they're huge ordeals by themselves.

I was thinking the same thing. The opening scene of Resevoir Dogs...imagine how many takes that took to get it all right. Kubrick was awesome for this. That's why Full metal Jacket gets my vote.

Vanilla sky, I don?t remenber who was the director.

Cameron Crowe...and it's one of my favorites too




Other mentions are Fight Club, Black Hawk Down, Saving Private Ryan, Blade Runner, Dune and Seven. Masterpieces all of them.

[Drossos]

Re: What Is Your Best Directed Movie ?

basically all tarrantino and scorsese films...

[poolman]

Re: What Is Your Best Directed Movie ?

Easily Requiem for A Dream for me. This movie was shot very artisticly and worked very well with the content of the film. I am still in awe of the use of camera work in this movie every time I watch it.